First Author | Xie MM | Year | 2017 |
Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 47 |
Issue | 7 | Pages | 1136-1141 |
PubMed ID | 28586108 | Mgi Jnum | J:247111 |
Mgi Id | MGI:5922840 | Doi | 10.1002/eji.201747034 |
Citation | Xie MM, et al. (2017) Bcl6 promotes follicular helper T-cell differentiation and PD-1 expression in a Blimp1-independent manner in mice. Eur J Immunol 47(7):1136-1141 |
abstractText | The transcription factors Bcl6 and Blimp1 have opposing roles in the development of the follicular helper T (TFH ) cells: Bcl6 promotes and Blimp1 inhibits TFH -cell differentiation. Similarly, Bcl6 activates, while Blimp1 represses, expression of the TFH -cell marker PD-1. However, Bcl6 and Blimp1 repress each other's expression, complicating the interpretation of the regulatory network. Here we sought to clarify the extent to which Bcl6 and Blimp1 independently control TFH -cell differentiation by generating mice with T-cell specific deletion of both Bcl6 and Blimp1 (double conditional KO [dcKO] mice). Our data indicate that Blimp1 does not control TFH -cell differentiation independently of Bcl6. However, a population of T follicular regulatory (TFR ) cells developed independently of Bcl6 in dcKO mice. We have also analyzed regulation of IL-10 and PD-1, two genes controlled by both Bcl6 and Blimp1, and observed that Bcl6 regulates both genes independently of Blimp1. We found that Bcl6 positively regulates PD-1 expression by inhibiting the ability of T-bet/Tbx21 to repress Pdcd1 transcription. Our data provide a novel mechanism for positive control of gene expression by Bcl6, and illuminate how Bcl6 and Blimp1 control TFH -cell differentiation. |